Wilhelm Steinitz

1834 - 1900
1st World Champion, 1886 - 1894
Wilhelm Steinitz dilahirkan di Prague, Bohemia (sekarang Czech Republic). Belajar
bermain catur ketika berumur 12 tahun dan minatnya mula berkembang ketika sedang
belajar di ViennaPada ketika itu kehebatan Morphy sebagai seorang pemain catur
handalan telah menjadi buah mulut orang ramai dan membangkitkan semangat mereka
untuk meminati permainan ini. Sebagi seorang pelajar yang miskin, Steinitz melihat
bahawa catur merupakan peluang baginya untuk memperolehi wang dengan bermain di
sebuah kedai kopi di Vienna. Ketika berumur 26 tahun dia telah menjadi juara di Vienna
dan pemain catur professional.
Steinitz telah datang ke London pada tahun 1862 untuk mewakili Austria dalam satu
pertandingan. Adolf Anderssen, ketika itu seorang pemain yang terunggul, telah
menjuarai pertandingan tersebut dan Steinitz mendapat tempat ke-6. Steinitz
mengambil keputusan untuk menetap di England di mana kebanyakan pemain terbaik
Eropah berada di sana. In 1866 Steinitz telah mengalahkan Anderssen dalam satu
pertandingan dengan mencatatkan keputusan 8 kemenangan, 0 seri and 6 kekalahan.
Steinitz kemudian mendakwa bahawa ini adalah permulaannya menuju kejohanan
dunia walaupun pada ketika itu tiada cadangan untuk mempertaruhkan sebarang
gelaran dalam mana-mana pertandingan. Steinitz telah mengalahkan Anderssen dalam
satu pertandingan pada tahun 1868 di Aachen tetapi tidak lama kemudian Anderssen
telah mengalahkan Steinitz dalam satu pertandingan yang lebih penting di Baden-Baden
pada tahun 1870.
Selapas kematian pada tahun 1879, salah seorang muridnya, Johannes Zukertort muncul
sebagai saingan yang hebat kepada Steinitz. Zukertort telah mengalahkan Anderssen
dalam satu perlawana pada tahun 1871 tetapi apabila satu perlawanan telah diaturkan
antaranya dengan Steinitz pada tahun 1872 Zukertort telah dikalahkan dengan dahsyat.
10 tahun berikutnya Steinitz tidak banyak menyertai pertandingan. Sebaliknya, dia
bekerja keras untuk memantapkan teori bermain catur. Dalam sejarah catur,
kebijaksanaan pemain catur untuk membuat sacrifice dan winning attack menjadi daya
tumpuan ketika itu. Steinitz melawan amalan ketika itu dengan mempertahankan
bahawa sesuatu permainan tidak akan kalah tanpa pemainnya membuat sebarang
kesalahan. Dia cuba menunjukkan bahawa jika tidak terdapat kesalahan dalam
pertahanan ketika bermain, serangan hebat yang dilakukan oleh pihak lawan tidak akan
berjaya. Dia menekankan bahawa sesuatu permainan catur mengandungi satu struktur
logik yang mana kelebihan (advantage) kecil boleh berhimpun untuk membentuk
kelebihan yang lebih besar dan serangan yang dilakukan sepatutnya berdasarkan
kepada positional advantage. Dia berusaha untuk membuktikan teori ini dalam
permainannya.
Steinitz bertemu Zukertort sekali lagi dalam London International Tournament pada
tahun 1883. 14 orang pemain terbaik dunia berada di sana untuk bermain 2 permainan
setiap orang dalam 26 pusingan. Pertandingan ini juga merupakan pertandingan rasmi
pertama yang menggunakan jam mekanik untuk menentukan masa dalam permainan.
Zukertort bermain dengan hebat dengan kemenangan sebanyak 22 kali daripada 23
permainan dan memperthankan tempat pertama selama 2 minggu perlawanan
berlangsung. Akhirnya dia keletihan dan kalah 3 permainan terakhir.
Walaubagaimanapun dia masih 3 mata di hadapan Stenitz yang mendapat tempat
kedua.
Tidak lama selepas pertandingan tersebut Steinitz telah meninggalkan England untuk
menetap di Amerika Syarikat dan di tengah-tengah kekalutan untuk menentang
Zukertort dan persediaannya untuk menghadapi kejohanan rasmi catur dunia yang
pertama.
Kejohanan rasmi catur dunia yang pertama bermula pada hari Isnin 11 Januari 1886 di
Amerika Syarikat. Bahagian pertama pertandingan berlangsung di New York sehingga
salah seorang pemain memenangi 4 permainan. Mereka kemudian berentap di St. Louis
sehingga salah seorang daripada mereka memenangi 3 permainan lagi. Bahagian
terakhir berlangsung di New Orleans. Pemenang hendaklah menjadi orang pertama
yang yang memperoleh 10 mata kemenangan. Buat pertama kalinya, sebuah papan yang
besar digunakan untuk memainkan semula gerakan kepada gerombolan penonton yang
berkumpul untuk melihat pertarungan tersebut dan selepas beberapa gerakan dibuat ia
dihantar ke Eropah di mana ramai orang menyokong Zukertort.
Akhirnya pada peringkat pertama Zukertort telah mendahului dengan keputusan 4-1. Di
St. Louis Steinitz telah menyamakan kedudukan dengan keputusan 4 - 4. Di New
Orleans perlawanan tidak banyak perbezaan sehinggalah pada permainan yang ke-15
dengan Steinitz mendahului 6-5 dan 4 seri. Zukertort kemudian memperolehi 1 seri
pada 5 pusingan berikutnya dan telah menunjukkan tanda-tanda keletihan yang amat
sangat. Steinitz kemudian telah mengalahkan Zukertort dengan keputusan 10- 5 dan
telah dinobatkan sebagai juara dunia. Zukertort kembali ke England dalam keadaan
uzur dan meninggal dunia 2 tahun kemudian pada umur 46 tahun.
Steinitz merupakan pemain catur pertama yang meraih wang hadiah daripada
pertandingan dan kemenangan tetapi dia tidak dapat mengumpulkan wang untuk
bersara dengan selesa. Dia terpaksa bermain catur untuk suatu masa yang lama
walaupun dia telah berada di kemuncak kegemilangannya. Dia akhirnya mengalami
masalh mental dan menghabiskan sisa hidupnya di hospital pesakit mental. Dia
meninggal dunia dalam keadaan papa kedana pada 12 Ogos 1900.




Emanuel Lasker

1868 - 1941
2nd World Champion, 1894 - 1921
Emanuel Lasker dilahirkan di Berlinchen, Germany pada 24 December 1868. Dia telah diajar bermain
catur oleh abangnya Berthold. Sebagai seorang kanak-kanak Lasker telah mempamerkan bakatnya
dalam catur dan matematik. Dia melanjutkan pelajaran di Berlin untuk meningkatkan kemahiran
matematiknya dan kemudian di Erlangen University. Dia memperolehi gelaran German master pada
tahun 1889.
Pada tahun 1892 dia telah memenangi pertandingan catur buat pertama kali dalam satu pertandingan
kecil yang berprestij di London di mana dia mendapat tempat pertama dengan mata di hadapan
Blackburne. Lasker kemudian berentap dalam satu pertandingan menentang Blackburne dan apabila
dia telah menang dengan penuh gemilang dia mula berfikir kemungkin untuk menjadi juara dunia. Dia
telah mencabar Tarrasch tetapi cabarannya telah ditolak. Lasker memberitahu dirinya bahawa dia
sepatutnya menang dalam mana-mana pertandingan besar terlebih dahulu.
Lasker pergi ke Amerika Syarikat untuk mencabar Steinitz yang agak berusia untuk merebut gelaran
juara dunia. Pertandingan tersebut telah berlangsung pada tahun 1894. Seperti pertandingan
terdahulu antara Steinitz vs. Zukertort, pertandingan akan dilangsungkan di tiga tempat, New York,
Philadelphia dan Montreal. Pemain yang memperolehi 10 mata akan menjadi juara dunia. 6
permainan yang pertama agak sengit dengan setiap daripada mereka memperoleh 2 kemenangan
dan 2 seri. Kemudian Lasker telah memenangi 2 permainan berikutnya. Di Philadelphia Steinitz telah
kalah kesemua permainan. Lasker telah menjadi juara dunia ketika berumur 25 tahun di Montreal
dengan kemenangan sebanyak 5 kali dan 4 kali seri daripada 10 permainan. Lasker telah
mengekalkan gelaran sebagai juara dunia selama 27 tahun.
Walaubagaimanapun, masih ada yang meragui siapa pemain yang terbaik. Ada yang menyangka,
adakah usia Steinitz yang telah menjangkau 58 tahun pada ketika itu memudahkan Lasker untuk
mengalahkannya. Seperti yang disebut oleh Tarrash,
"In my opinion the match with Steinitz does not have the great importance that they
themselves attribute to it. For Steinitz has grown old, and the old Steinitz is no longer the
Steinitz of old."
Begitu juga kenyataan bahawa Lasker tidak pernah menjuarai sebarang pertandingan besar pada
ketika itu menjadikan dakwaannya sebagai juara dunia bukanlah perkara yang mudah diterima. This
prompted Tarrasch, who had the best tournament record at this time, request a separate title of
"World Tournament Champion". The tournament was to take place in Hastings in 1895. It was
believed that the victor would be either Lasker, Tarrasch or Steinitz. However, a major upset
occurred when Harry Nelson Pillsbury, an American playing in his first major tournament, won
instead leaving the issue of world champion undecided. Later in the year the top five winners of
the Hastings tournament, Pillsbury, Tchigorin, Lasker, Tarrasch and Steinitz were invited to play in a
tournament in St. Petersburg to resolve the matter. Tarrasch, however, was unable to attend due to
professional commitments.
The tournament in St. Petersburg consisted of eighteen rounds with each player playing his rival six
times. Lasker emerged clear winner by two points and Steinitz took second place. At the rematch for
the world championship in Moscow in 1896 Lasker beat Steinitz with a score of ten wins to two with
five draws. Lasker's excellent results left no one in any doubt as to who was the real world champion.
Lasker always demanded large appearance fees for his matches. He had witnessed former world
champion, Steinitz and other players end up poverty-stricken and wanted to make things better for
future chess players. However, despite his efforts chess masters were still dying in poverty. This
cause him to become disillusioned with the game and in 1920, after agreeing to defend his title against
Capablanca, he decided that his heart was not really in it and resigned without the match taking place.
However, the chess world would not allow this to happen and in 1921 the match went ahead. After 14
games Lasker resigned on the grounds of ill health and returned to Europe prepared to retire from
chess for good.
Chess was never Lasker's main career and throughout his world champion reign he actively pursued
his other interests in mathematics and philosophy. After the World Championship match he returned to
his academic interests and played bridge to international level. However, after two years he returned
to chess only to retired again in 1925. During the war the Nazis forced him to flee Germany, leaving
his property and money behind him. He was now penniless. In 1934, at the age of 65, he needed to
return to chess for financial security. He demonstrated that even when he was elderly he could still
play great chess. He finally made his home in New York and died in 1941 at the age of 72.

Jose Raul Capablanca

1888 - 1942
3rd World Champion, 1921 - 1927
Jose Raul Capablanca was born in Havana, Cuba on the 19th of November 1888. He learned chess
at the age of four by watching his father play and in 1901, at the age of 12, he beat Juan Corzo, the
Cuban champion. Capablanca was regarded as the most naturally talented chess player anyone had
ever seen. He was educated in America, studied engineering at Columbia University and spent much
of his free time playing masters at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York City, where he achieved a
sensational win in a match against US Champion Frank Marshall crushing him by 8 wins to 1 with 14
draws in 1909 when he was 20 years old. Frank Marshall had unsuccessfully played Lasker in a World
Championship match only two years earlier.
In 1911, on the insistence of Marshall, Capablanca played in San Sebastian, Spain at one of the
strongest tournaments in the world at that time. He astounded everyone by taking first place at this
tournament with a score of 6 wins, 7 draws and 1 loss ahead of Rubinstein, Schlechter and
Nimzovitsch. This was his first major tournament, an achievement he shares only with Pillsbury.
In 1911 Capablanca challenged Lasker for the world championship. Lasker agreed to the challenge
but imposed 17 conditions for a future match. Capablanca disagreed with these conditions and the
match did not take place.
In September 1913 Capablanca secured a job in the Cuban Foreign Office. He had no specific duties
but to play chess.
In 1914 at a tournament in St. Petersburg Capablanca met Lasker over the chessboard for the first
time. Capablanca took the lead by one and a half points in the preliminaries but lost to Lasker in the
finals. Capablanca finished second to Lasker with a score of 13 points to Lasker's 13.5.
In the ten years after this tournament (from 1914 to 1924) he lost only one game and the chess world
was beginning to think he was invincible. However, Capablanca had to wait another seven years until
he could prove he was the world champion.
The war interrupted European chess for four years. After the war Lasker's heart was not really in
chess. His efforts to secure proper financial rewards for chess masters had failed and great players
were still dying in poverty. He agreed to defend his title against Capablanca in 1920 but resigned his
title in favour of the challenger as he no longer felt like struggling. He told Capablanca, "You have
earned the title not by the formality of a challenge, but by your brilliant mastery." However, there was
pressure from the chess world for Lasker to play Capablanca and when Capablanca found sponsors in
Cuba who were prepared to finance the match for twenty-five thousand dollars of which half would go
to Lasker whether he won or lost he decided to go ahead with the match. However, Lasker maintained
that as he had resigned the title already it was he who was challenger to Capablanca.
In Havana in 1921 the match went ahead but it was a great disappointment to chess fans. Although
thirty games had been planned the match lasted for only fourteen after which Lasker was losing by
four games to none with ten draws. He resigned the match on grounds of ill health. Capablanca was
now the new World Champion.
In December 1921 he married Gloria Simoni Beautucourt. They had a son, Jose Raul in 1923 and a
daughter, Gloria in 1925.
At this time in the history of chess there was an increasing number of strong chess players and it was
felt that the world champion should not be able to evade challenges to his title as has been done in the
past. In London in 1922 the greatest players of the time including Alekhine, Bogolyubov, Maroczy,
Reti, Rubinstein, Tartakower and Vidmar, met to discuss rules for the conduct of future world
championships. Amongst other things, one of the conditions, which was imposed by Capablanca, was
that the challenger would have to raise at least ten thousand dollars for the prize money.
In the following years, Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch challenged Capablanca but were unable to raise
the necessary ten thousand dollars. Then came Alekhine's challenge backed by a group of
Argentinean businessmen and the president of Argentina who guaranteed the funds. However,
Capablanca imposed another condition. He replied that if Alekhine wanted to be considered as a
challenger then he would have to play in a tournament in New York. The winner of this tournament
would play Capablanca in the next world championship. This outraged Alekhine who had gone to a lot
of trouble to find sponsors to back him. Capablanca had put another hurdle in his way. Beside this, it
seemed that Capablanca had selected players for the tournament who had never before beaten him in
even one game. They were Nimzowitsch, Vidmar, Spielmann and Marshall. Capablanca easily won
this tournament and Alekhine came second. Alekhine had qualified to challenge the world champion.
Perhaps because Capablanca had won this tournament so easily he had became dangerously
complacent. The World Champion match was held in Buenos Aires in 1927. The first to win six games
would be the new World Champion. This match was the longest World Champion match there had
ever been. It lasted thirty-four games and seventy-three days but eventually Alekhine achieved a score
of six wins to three to secure the title of World Champion.
A personal feud had grown between Alekhine and Capablanca with Alekhine refusing to play in the
same tournaments as his old rival. At the Nottingham tournament in 1936 when the two men did meet
they were never seen seated together at the board for more than a few seconds. Each man made his
move and then got up and walked round. Capablanca died of a stroke in New York in 1942. Upon
Alekhine's death four years later it was discovered that he had been working on a collection of
Capablanca's best games and in the introduction he had written, "With his death, we have lost a very
great chess genius whose like we shall never see again."





Alexander Alekhine

1892 - 1946
4th World Champion, 1927 - 1935, 1937 - 1946
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was born in Moscow, Russia in 1892. He was the son
of aristocratic parents. His mother taught him to play chess and he soon developed a
great passion for the game. He gained the title of master at St Petersburg in 1909.
In 1914 he came third in the St Petersburg tournament behind Lasker and Capablanca
and it was around this time he began to think seriously about challenging the world
champion, Capablanca. However, the outbreak of the war occurred while he was playing
in the Mannheim tournament in 1914 and interrupted his chess plans.
During Alekhine's time there were more chess players than ever before. The term
"grandmaster" has only been a formal title since 1950 but it had been applied to players
of world championship standard since the 19th Century. Formerly there had never been
more than three or four players of this standard around at the same time. Now there
were at least twenty. Consequently, when Alekhine refused to play Capablanca because
of a personal feud there were plenty of other players willing to take his place.
In 1929 and 1934 he played Russian, Bogolyubov for the world champion beating him
easily. However in 1935, the Dutchman, Euwe challenged him. Alekhine, who had a liking
for alcohol was frequently drunk during his games with Euwe and consequently lost his
title. However in a rematch, after giving up alcohol, he defeated Euwe by 10 wins to 4
with 11 draws making him the first man to ever regain the world champion.
In 1938 a tournament sponsored by AVRO (Algemene Verenigde Radio Omroep), a
wireless company, was held in the Netherlands to determined the next world champion
challenger. The eight strongest players in the world were invited to play. Estonian, Paul
Keres and American, Ruben Fine were the joint winners. Mikhail Botvinnik came third. In
fourth place were Alekhine and Euwe and Capablanca who had suffered a minor stroke
during the tournament came seventh. However, Botvinnik had the backing of Russia and
as a result he could offer greater financial rewards to Alekhine. Hence Alekhine accepted
Botvinnik's challenge for the world champion.
The outbreak of the war interrupted the world championship preparations but when the
war ended negotiations resume. The match preparations were near completion when
Alekhine had a heart attack and died in Portugal in 1946.
Machgielis (Max) Euwe

1901 - 1981
5th World Champion, 1935 - 1937
Max Euwe was born in Watergrafsmeer, The Netherlands in 1901. Both of Euwe's parents
played chess and he grew up with the game. He was a professor of mathematics and
mechanics and chess took second place to his professional life. He remained an amateur
throughout his chess playing career. He held the World Championship title between 1935
and 1937 after defeating Alekhine. After his academic retirement he was president of
FIDE (Fdration Internationale des Echecs) from 1970 to 1978 and arbitrated over the
turbulent Fischer - Spassky World Championship match in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1972.
Mikhail Botvinnik

1911 - 1995
6th World Champion
1948 - 1957, 1958 - 1960, 1961 - 1963
Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik was born in St Petersburg, Russia in 1911. He learned
to play chess at the age of 12. An electrical engineer by training, he was the first
Russian to hold the World Championship title after he won the 1948 tournament
following the death of Alexander Alekhine. He held on to the world title until his defeat
by Petrosian in 1963, except for two occasions when he lost the title for one year, to
Smyslov (1957 - 1958) and Tal (1960 - 1961). Botvinnik was very serious about
chess and never played for fun.
After his defeat to Petrosian he trained other Soviet players and devised a training
programme. He advocated practicing with strong players, studying master games,
publicizing analysis to be criticized by others, learning to handle the clock to avoid
time trouble and to concentrate in spite of disturbances. Although he was a non-
smoker, he often practiced with heavy smokers to practice his ability to concentrate in
adverse situations. He also stressed the importance of regular physical activity to
maintain fitness. In 1970 he gave up playing in order to concentrate on the
development of chess computers.





Vasily Smyslov

1921 -
7th World Champion, 1957 - 1958
Vasily Vasilievich Smyslov was born in Moscow, Russia in 1921. He learned to play
chess at the age of 6. He learned much about chess from his father and studied the
chess books in his father's library. Smyslov was an opera singer but made chess his
career after narrowly failing an audition for the Bolshoi Opera in 1950. He once said,
"I have always lived between chess and music." and brought music to his games. He
once sang operatic extracts on Swiss radio and during the interval of a serious living
chess game against Botvinnik he sang to an audience of thousands. He defeated
Botvinnik in 1957 World Championship match but lost the title to Botvinnik in the
1958 rematch.
Mikhail Tal

1936 - 1992
8th World Champion, 1960 - 1961
Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal was born in Riga, Latvia in 1936. His father was a physician and the young
Tal became interested in chess when he saw the game played in his father's waiting room. However, it
was not until he was in his teens that he began to study the game seriously. Tal soon became
obsessed with the game and played as often as he could. He could even be seen playing a game or
two of blitz chess between rounds at tournaments.
For much of his life he suffered from ill-health but his obsession with chess was made apparent when,
prior to an operation, he talked about chess until the mask was placed on his face and when
recuperating he had to be taken back to hospital on several occasions after making his escape to a
local chess club. He defeated Mikhail Botvinnik in 1960 at the age of 24 to become the youngest
grandmaster to hold the world champion title until then.
Tal was an attacking genius at the board. His attacks often looked like sheer madness but later
analysis would show that his intuition had been correct. Botvinnik is quoted as having said, " I was
surprised by his ability to figure out complex variations. Then the way he sets out the game; he was
not interested in the objectivity of the position, whether it's better or worse, he only needed room for
his pieces. All you do then is figure out variations which are extremely difficult. He was tactically
outplaying me and I made mistakes."



Tigran Petrosian

1929 - 1984
9th World Champion, 1963 - 1969
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian was born in 1929 in Tbilisi, Georgia of Armenian parents. His parents
died before he was 16 and he found consolation in chess. He was greatly influenced by Nimzovitch's
theories and his play was deeply prophylactic, preventing any plans his opponents might come up
with. He enjoyed slowly improving the position of his pieces and closed positions where he could
quietly fight for the control of key squares. His style of play made his games less accessible to anyone
other than masters and this made him one of the least popular of the World Champions. He defeated
Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963 to become World Champion and lost his title to Boris Spassky in 1969.
Boris Spassky

1937 -
10th World Champion, 1969 - 1972
Boris Vasilievich Spassky was born in 1937 in Leningrad, Russia. He learned chess as a youngster in
the Urals where he lived during the Second World War. He became international master in 1953, and
junior world champion in 1955 and received his grandmaster title in the same year. He won the World
Championship against Tigran Petrosian in 1969 and became one of the most popular of all champions
with his naturally polite, friendly disposition.
In 1972 American Bobby Fischer challenged Spassky for the title of World Champion which was held
in Reykjavik, Iceland. This most publicized world championship in chess history took place during the
Cold War between the USA and the USSR. As a consequence both players were under considerable
pressure to win. When Fischer defeated Spassky, 35 years of Soviet domination of the world
championship also ended. Spassky returned to his homeland in disgrace.
After this match Spassky continued to play at top level and won the 1973 Soviet championship and
other international tournaments. He still plays occasionally today and is a frequent participant in the
annual Ladies vs. Veterans competitions.
Robert (Bobby) Fischer

1943 -
11th World Champion, 1972 - 1975
Robert James Fischer is considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. He was born
in Chicago, USA in 1943 and brought up in Brooklyn where his mother moved after she was divorced
in 1945. He learned to play chess at the age of 6 and soon became deeply absorbed in the game
saying "All I want to do, ever, is play chess." At the age of 13 he became the youngest national junior
chess champion in the USA and at the age of 14 he became the youngest senior US Champion. In
1958, at the age of 15, he became the youngest Grandmaster in the history of chess.
He broke the Soviet domination of the World Championship when he became the first American to win
the title by defeating Boris Spassky of the USSR in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1972. In 1975 FIDE refused
to meet Fischer's conditions for a World Championship match with the Soviet Anatoly Karpov and
Fischer refused to play. Consequently FIDE awarded the title of World Champion to Karpov. After this
dispute Fischer vanished from public eye for twenty years and moved to Europe.
In 1996 Fischer launched a new game called "Fischerandom Chess" in which the major pieces on the
back rank are randomly shuffled behind their pawns. Fischer maintained that this form of chess was a
better test of a player's skill and got away from opening theory homework.
Anatoly Karpov

1951 -
12th World Champion, 1975 - 1985
FIDE Champion 1993 - present
Anatoly Evgenievich Karpov was born in Zlatoust, Russia in 1951. He was taught the moves of chess
when he was 4. At the age of 15 he became one of the youngest Soviet players ever to gain the title of
National Master. In April 1975, a few days before his 24th birthday FIDE declared him the World
Champion after Bobby Fischer, the current World Champion, refused to defend his title. Karpov was
embarrassed that he had acquired the title in this manner and subsequently played in many strong
tournaments to prove that he deserved to be World Champion. He performed impressively and
accumulated the finest tournament record in history. He once said, "To be champion requires more
than simply being a strong player; one has to be a strong human being as well." He retained his title
until losing to Garry Kasparov in a controversial match in 1985.
In 1993 Kasparov rejected FIDE leaving Karpov to play in the official FIDE World Championship match
in which he defeated Jan Timman of the Netherlands. However, his victory was over-shadowed by the
independent championship match played at the same time between the current World Champion,
Kasparov and British Grandmaster, Nigel Short. Both Karpov and Kasparov won their championship
matches and both claim the title of World Champion.
His style of play is positional. He describes his game philosophy as follows: "Let us say the game may
be continued in two ways: one of them is a beautiful tactical blow that gives rise to variations that don't
yield to precise calculation; the other is clear positional pressure that leads to an endgame with
microscopic chances of victory.... I would choose the latter without thinking twice. If the opponent
offers keen play I don't object; but in such cases I get less satisfaction, even if I win, than from a game
conducted according to all the rules of strategy with its ruthless logic."
Garry Kasparov

1963 -
13th World Champion, 1985 - 1993
PCA Champion, 1993 - present
Garry Kimovich Kasparov was born Gary Weinstein in Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR in 1963. Kasparov
learned to play chess from his father who later died in a road accident when he was 7 years old. He
subsequently changed his name to Kasparov, a Russified version of his mother's maiden name,
Kasparyan. Kasparov's chess talent was apparent at an early age. In 1973 he attended the Botvinnik
Chess School and Kasparov continued to make rapid progress. In 1975 at the age of 12 he became
the youngest ever player to win the USSR Junior Championship. At 16 he won the World Junior
Championship. He achieved the title of Grandmaster on his 17th birthday
In 1984 he challenged the current reigning World Champion, Anatoly Karpov for the title. This match
was a hard fought battle and lasted 6 months, the longest in the history of chess. It was finally stopped
by Florencio Campomanes, president of FIDE and a rematch ordered. In November 1985 Kasparov
won the rematch against Karpov and became the youngest World Champion at the age of 22 years.
After long term friction with the international chess organisation, FIDE, Kasparov set up the rival
organisation, the Professional Chess Association (PCA) and arranged a World Championship match in
1993 in which he beat British Grandmaster, Nigel Short. At the same time FIDE held their official
Championship match between former World Champion, Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman which
Karpov won. Both Kasparov and Karpov claim the title of World Champion.
In 1996 Kasparov competed in a six game match against an IBM computer called Deep Blue.
Kasparov won with a score of 4 games to 2 games. The following year, he competed against an
improved version called Deeper Blue and was defeated 3.5 games to 2.5 games. It was the first time a
Grandmaster had lost a series of games to a computer. He is currently the highest rated player there
has ever been in the history of chess.